The Flat Rock Stringband plays Old-Time American stringband music. Originating before the commercial recording industry, before electricity, radio, and mass media, Old-Time music is rooted in a time when people made their own entertainment.

This tradition has continued through the ages much in the same way. It is not so much a kind of music that people perform as a kind of music that people socialize to. It's a way to turn a living room into a dance hall or a way to enliven a gathering of friends or family.
 
As much of a tune session between friends as a band, we play the music in the manner that we imagine the old-timers must have: to renew themselves after a day of work, to ennoble the joys of the day or to sweeten its troubles, and to just kick back and enjoy the evening.

While the sky unleashes on us Portlanders for six months straight every year, we're rocking out in living rooms, rental halls, and pubs with fiddles and banjos, dancing, playing tunes, and enjoying each other's company.

Flat Rock Stringband is: Brooks Masten -banjo, Robin Wilcox -bass, Linnea Spitzer -fiddle, Eric Bagdonas -guitar